There are 3 reasons why I think the human race
will adapt faster than the climate will change:

It’s all about energy.

If we can solve the energy issue – everything else will fall into place.

Presently, research and innovation in alternate energies are moving at faster and faster rates as the effects of Climate Change are pressing the importance of the need for an orchestra of immediate solutions. The extreme weather, drought, ocean acidification, and on and on, are creating awareness – and a healthy fear of the possible consequences.

As fast as the internet has sprung up, as fast as everyone buys the latest iphone – we will apply technologies that will replace our need for fossil fuels, clean up our planet, and pave the way for colonies on the moon, then Mars, then onward to evolve into a society very similar to that imagined by Gene Roddenberry.

Our Challenge: Meeting The Energy Needs Of Humanity

70% or more of fossil fuels are used for transportation, much of the rest is used to create electricity. First, we need to rethink our global trade, shipping, food production and travel habits to focus on local, and, we need to implement a clean alternative to fuel cars, trucks, ships, airplanes and trains. Second, in the next 100 years – we need a clean alternative for creating at least 4 times the current global output of electricity, while at the same time, maintaining a balance of the ideal CO2 levels in the atmosphere.

The biggest challenge mankind has ever faced, and it may seem so daunting that it is impossible… but I’m sure 99.9% of people surveyed just ten years would have voted against the possibility of the vastness of the Internet development that has occurred in the past decade.

Now that we have the ability to share ideas across the globe – instantly – we cannot use our past speed-of-adaption to forecast the speed of change we are capable of in the present day. Past performance is not an indicator of future performance. Our youth are not burdened by the struggles and challenges of our elders – let us be frank – and give them the challenge squarely. We will be surprised, and delighted, with the results of their ingenuity.

Early indicators hint that we will get these systems in place before we run out of fossil fuels.

 

Reason Number One

Technology to Power Our Homes And Towns

Local Bio-Gas Production from human and animal waste will permit us to collect biogas. One thing we all do is poop – our livestock, and us people. And often, we have a great deal of waste food and waste biomass that is mistakenly thrown into landfill sites. Necessity will force us to savor these resources, collect them, and use them locally to create our own Bio-Gas.

 

Bio-gas can be used to produce electricity using The Bloom Box. The Bloom Box can create electricity for direct use, and the quantity of power produced enables even more solutions.

Unlike solar power, the Bloom Box can produce enough electricity to power air compressors – which makes the use of geothermal heating possible in locations that are off the power grid.

 

Greentech Media (blog)

CPV News: SolFocus Looking to Close a $35M Round E Greentech Media (blog) Advanced Equities has been called in to fill out the massive fundraising efforts of Fisker Automotive, Bloom Energy, and Serious Materials -- to name the most prominent offenders. Advanced Equities allows VCs such as Kleiner Perkins to fill out venture ... and more »

Want energy independence? 5 on-site generation players to watch ZDNet (blog) But Bloom Energy is just one company in the fast-emerging market for on-site generation systems, which has captured roughly $585 million in venture capital investment since 2006, according to a new report by Lux Research. That's a drop in the bucket ... and more »

 

 

 

 

Reason Number Three

Technology To Economically Capture And Store CO2

Capturing CO2 will become a profitable enterprise, and not a cost for future societies to pay on our behalf.

Already in 2012, current technologies can make large scale collection of CO2 possible, and once these networks are established, the infrastructure will ensure collection of CO2 will continue for decades – at very low costs.

Map of Current Carbon Capture Projects World Wide

The abundance of collected CO2, combined with extreme fossil fuel prices and the proliferation of hydrogen powered vehicles will lead to profitable ways to utilize the CO2 we capture.

iCO2N Blog Updates

The Carbon Capture Conundrum This graphic does a great job of...

We have just updated our graphics with the most recent...

Our July Newsletter is out!

Short, sweet and easy to understand… just the way we like...

The National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy has...

 

Carbon Capture Journal

 

Algae CO2 Capture

Algae Fuels Community @ CleanTick – One-stop Destination for All about Algae Fuels!

Australian Project Capturing CO2 with Algae

Algae.Tec in a JV with Chinese Company for the First Algae Biofuels Facility in China

GreenStars to Utilize Waste and Industrial CO2 for Producing Biofuels from Algae

 

Fossil fuels have given us unthinkable powers – that we have become entirely dependent upon for our very survival.

And now mankind must focus on using those powers to develop alternative energies we could never have accessed without the assistance of fossil fuels.

Oil, Coal and Natural Gas have powered our Industrial Age, given rise to the Information Age, and must now help us transition to more sophisticated, but greener, ways to create sustainable energy.

The reason that the human race can adapt faster than the climate can change, is the fact that we can adapt – globally – faster than ever before in history.

 

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The Drought Of 2012

Drought Reduces Crop In USA

NBCNews.com

Drought expected to take toll at checkout NBCNews.com (blog) FORT WORTH, Texas – At a grocery store in Fort Worth, shoppers walk the aisles with coupons in their hands and off-brand products in their carts. A still-recovering economy has many looking to save a few dollars on their food bill, a job that is ... WINDMILL COUNTRY: Don't blame drought for price hikeSan Angelo Standard Times Drought-Suicide Link Suggested In New StudyHuffington Post The Drought and the Biofuels DisasterCounterPunch Talk Radio News Service -Henry Herald -RenewableEnergyWorld.com all 81 news articles »

United States end drought on Mexican soil Reuters United States end drought on Mexican soil ... U.S. Michael Orozco celebrates his a goal during the second half of their soccer friendly match against Mexico at Azteca stadium in Mexico City, August 15, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Edgard Garrido. Thu Aug 16 ... and more »

ThinkProgress

August 16 News: Drought Creates Toxic Feed Problem In Texas; Ranchers ... ThinkProgress By Stephen Lacey on Aug 16, 2012 at 8:44 am. The worst U.S. ... Agriculture groups are warning farmers that drought-hit plants may have failed to process nitrogen fertilizer due to stunted growth, making them poisonous to livestock. Exceptionally early ... Hawaii ranches struggle under drought conditionsHuffington Post Ranches Are Dealing With Drought Even In HawaiiKWTX all 186 news articles »

2012 Drought Inches Up In U.S. Historical Rankings Climate Central (blog) The costly and ongoing drought that stretches across a majority of the lower 48 states worsened during the past month, and by one measure it now ranks fifth on the top 10 list of the largest droughts ever recorded in the U.S., according to a new report ... and more »

Pictures of Drought

Climate Change Matters

IF we take the claim that global climate change is real and humans are a leading contributor of the problem ...

Climate change drives salmon evolution. Salmon DNA records stretching back over 30 years show that nature has increasingly selected for fish that migrate from the ocean earlier in the year. It is among the first pieces of genetic evidence that climate change is driving the evolution of a species.

submitted by GraybackPH to science
[link] [281 comments]

Leaked documents suggest that an organization known for attacking climate science is planning a new push to undermine the teaching of global warming in public schools, the latest indication that climate change is becoming a part of the nation’s culture wars.

submitted by yourmotherisawhore to science
[link] [1312 comments]

Trending Tweets on Climate Change

thinkprogress (ThinkProgress): GOP Senate nominee says most efforts to combat climate change are irrational, invests in fossil fuels http://t.co/jc4qA7cHGB

TIME (TIME.com): Climate change: Why a hotter world will mean more extinctions | http://t.co/lZs45tZHM6

HuffingtonPost (Huffington Post): Climate change to dramatically shrink animal habitats http://t.co/UmxT8qxR7E

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Shifting Distribution of Northern Hemisphere Summer Temperature Anomalies, 1951-2011

This bell curve graph shows how the distribution of Northern Hemisphere summer temperature anomalies has shifted toward an increase in hot summers. The seasonal mean temperature for the entire base period of 1951-1980 is plotted at the top of the bell curve.

This visualization shows a flat map of the Earth with summertime temperature anomalies for the Northern Hemisphere. This analysis compares observed seasonal mean temperatures (June-July-August) to the seasonal mean temperatures during a base period from 1951 to 1980.

NASA Data Shows Alarming Rate Of Climate Change

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We are faced with a choice – to fail – or to succeed.

2210: The Collapse? – National Geographic Channel

In the year 2210, scientists uncover the ruins of a great civilization, they piece together a story of collapse about what on Earth happened to us.

In the year 2210, scientists uncover the ruins of a great civilization – so powerful one could argue it dwarfed anything that came before it. Sifting through the wreckage of cities overtaken by the desert and swallowed up by the sea, they piece together a remarkable story of collapse – the story of what on Earth happened to us.

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Climate Change Scientists around the world are in a full scale panic to improve alternate energy sources and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

While trends seem to suggest we are not acting fast enough to reduce our production of carbon dioxide and other green house gasses, there are some bright areas of research in alternate energy that could help in the transition to green energy.

The top three forms of alternate energy sources with a carbon-neutral footprint that show the greatest promise to provide solutions on the scale that mankind needs today and tomorrow are:

Solar: The Mass Alternate Energy

Solar is the most powerful form of alternate energy – and new technologies are able to produce up to 90% efficiency in transferring the sun’s energy into electricity. The future will see vast fields of parabolic mirrors that focus the sunlight onto small super-efficient solar panels. The payback of solar as an alternate energy to fossil fuels takes a while because the creation of the solar panels and systems is costly.
 

Wind: Higher Altitudes = Stronger Wind

Wind Energy shows fantastic promise with new technologies that will make the now-familiar massive windmills a thing of the past. Tethered Wind Turbines are under development and promise to produce vast amounts of electricity from offshore winds over the oceans and in the upper atmosphere where wind speeds are far higher that at ground levels.
 
 

Geothermal: Greenland and Hawaii Get Rich

Geothermal Energy is showing most promise when combined with the production of hydrogen for use in fuel cells that can power vehicles. Early production tests in Greenland are showing fantastic success with tapping geothermal as an alternate energy that could help power the world. The entire process of producing and consuming this powerful, green, carbon neutral alternate energy source have been tested and proven. Imagine a future where Greenland and Hawaii are the richest nations in the world because, instead of having access to underground oil, they have easy access to underground heat!

Alternate Energy Sources Big Enough

These alternate energy sources are plentiful enough to power the needs of mankind, now and in the future, without adding to the levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere – a critical step in keeping our comforts in line with the delicate balance nature that permits life on Earth.

We Will Find The Solutions

As climate change makes our lives more uncomfortable, we will be more motivated as a species to turn our attention to saving our plant. The focus on developing viable means of alternate energy will consume people on a world wide level, and, when mankind turns our attention to the problem all at once – change will occur as fast as the speed at which the Internet has developed.

We will move toward locally-produced energy, we will reduce our need to travel with better and better Internet connections, replace or vehicles with clean fuel-cell cars, and we will also gain a planetary co-operation in managing our atmosphere – all while we produce even better and more efficient alternate energy sources.

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In spite of all the bad news and gloom around Climate Change – there is progress toward solutions. Here is a Playlist of Videos that demonstrate promising technologies that could produce power and be carbon neutral.

We are just starting out our YouTube Channel on Climate Change Solutions!

Presently we are starting with the following lists:

- CO2 Removal, Storage and Recycling
- Evidence Of Climate Change
- Alternative Energies
- Those Against Human Caused Climate Change

Do you have a video that you think we should include in our lists? Please leave a comment here or on our Channel.

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Innovations for cleaning up carbon dioxide

Correspondent Josh Zepps @joshzepps tells us about innovations for cleaning up the carbon dioxide that’s already in the atmosphere.

Scientists at Columbia University have developed a kind of “artificial leaf” that can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere faster than actual trees. It can be re-purposed, for carbonated drinks, dry ice, even a replacement for gasoline.

Zepps interviews @KenCaldeira, an atmospheric scientist with the Carnegie Institution at Stanford University, who says it will take decades to clean up the excess carbon dioxide that’s heating up the atmosphere.

A Material to Capture Carbon Dioxide

But @AllenWright and Klaus Lackner of the Earth Institute’s Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at Columbia University may have an answer to global warming: A type of plastic “leaf” that soaks up carbon dioxide from the air — about one ton a day for a piece the size of a large tree. To release the CO2, they the wet the plastic and catch the bubbles.

Allen says the carbon dioxide can be used to create a synthetic gasoline that’s carbon neutral because its emissions can be soaked up again.

Carbon Dioxide Capture Demonstration

Watch this interview from Technology Review by MIT, with Allen Wright, senior staff associate at Columbia University, who demonstrates their air capture process using a material that captures carbon dioxide from the air – a key technology to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gasses.

So What’s The Hold-Up?

The big challenge to deploying these synthetic trees isn’t technological, but financial. The researchers say the technology has to be profitable, and for that, they need to be able to sell the carbon dioxide to industry at a competitive price.

Are Carbon Dioxide Emission Taxes The Answer?

The scientists believe synthetic trees would get a bigger boost if the government taxed carbon dioxide emissions. This may be true – and to some degree, perhaps the Government should be requiring Carbon Emitters to pay the cost of removing the pollutant, much like a forestry company in Canada is required to re-forest and area they have harvested.

But Governments respond to public opinion, for the most part, and so the change in attitude about Carbon Pollution must come from us. From you and from me – from our friends and families and co-workers. Only then will the politicians be hearing this demand from enough sources to add it to their priorities.

What Can A Person Do?

Share this information.

Tweet it.

Post it to Facebook.

Like those videos on YouTube and leave a comment.

Your Tweet is more powerful than you know.

We just need to spread the knowledge – after that, proper action will be natural.

Innovations for cleaning up carbon dioxide

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When it comes to Climate Change, time is not on our side.

If we are to ever have a chance of reaching the stage of a Type One Civilization, we need to take action – now – before our climate reaches The Tipping Point.

Stopping Run-Away Climate Change

The Second Nature Blog suggests that we have five years to change our behavior in order to avoid Run-Away Climate Change – and suggests focusing on educating the young so they are more aware of creating carbon-neutral buildings and the like.

It may not be enough to simply reduce our impact through better behavior – just maintaining our current level of carbon dioxide production is surely enough to cause catastrophic changes in our climate in the very near future.  We need more than better buildings, and reducing emissions will not be possible without an alternative energy source to replace fossil fuels.

We need to remove the carbon dioxide faster than we are producing it.

Building More Carbon Producing Energy Plants

Kelly Rigg points out the fact that global governments are building more infrastructure to burn even more fossil fuels in the near future.  As the human population grows, need for energy rises – and without an alternative energy source, it is obvious that our present path will ‘lock in’ the commitment to produce enough carbon dioxide to potentially doom our planet.

The creation of more power plants is inevitable.
As a species, we will not change our ways.

Instead, we need a solution that cleans up our carbon mess – and we need it now.

The iHelpEarth Foundation

All things are created twice – first in our minds, and then in the real world. The iHelpEarth Foundation is still just a dream. A dream with a plan – and a planet with a passionate need for many, many such plans.

The dream is to create a way for ordinary people to contribute money to a non-profit or not-for-profit organization that will use the funding to pay for the installation of ‘Artificial Trees’ and fund other methods of carbon capture and storage.

Just as the warming climate produces effects that increase the speed of global warming, a ground-swelling of people who put their support behind the solution will create effects in our society, big industry and government that will increase the speed of our efforts to clean up the Carbon Mess we have made.

Starting The Ball Rolling

One CO2 Absorbing Artificial Tree costs about the same as a small car – some quotes are under $30,000 for a unit that will remove as much as 90,000 Tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere every year!  Estimates report that only 300,000 to 400,000 trees would be needed to maintain a safe level of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.

400,000 units at $30,000 each = 12 Billion Dollars

12 Billion Seems Like A Big Number

The average working stiff has a hard time dealing with a number this big:  12,000,000,000

And detractors may scoff at an attempt to pull people together and generate this kind of capital for such a massive investment.  The number just seems insurmountable.

But it’s not just the blue and white collar worker that iHelpEarth is reaching out to – we are also asking small, medium and large businesses to participate – we are also asking local Municipalities, Cities both large and small, State and Provincial Governments,  all other organizations, and even the lame-ass Federal Governments to participate.

A ground-swelling of people who put their support behind the solution will create effects across our society that will increase the speed of our efforts to clean up the Carbon Mess we have made.

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